Hysteria
by wandererangel
Summary: AU. after Doomsday the Doctor and Rose come back to the Powell Estate to visit Jackie. But things have changed and fear can change people. What happens when that hysteria is aimed at the Doctor... DoctorWhump!
1. Chapter 1

Hysteria

*chapter one*

The Doctor still couldn't believe his eyes when he looked at her. He kept expecting her to not be there when he looked, but every time…there she was.

He looked at her again. Still there. Still pink and yellow. Still his ( _his? Yes, suppose so_ ). Not gone, not lost somewhere in the void, or stuck in a universe he couldn't reach. She was here, right here, standing right next to him. It had been almost four months since the battle at Canary Warf and he still couldn't believe his eyes.

Or his luck.

* * *

They landed in their regular spot on the Powell estate. They had to make the obligatory visit to Jackie, since she hadn't been sucked into the void or stranded on a parallel world either. The Doctor supposed that was sort of a good thing too, kind of.

Rose walked out of the Tardis, washing bag full of dirty clothes in hand, happy to see her mum again (because she was really running out of things to wear). The Doctor followed, _slightly _less enthusiastic.

"Come on Doctor, no dawdling! I really need to get this washing done and it'll be good to see mum again. We can tell 'er all about that planet we just left, Senti-, Sennerani-…something", Rose said.

"Senterenniseveripelarenting. And I wasn't dawdling, I do not dawdle", the Doctor replied.

"Yeah, that one. An' if you're not dawdling, what are you lazying about for?"

"I'm INJURED! Look!"

The Doctor put up his left hand, the one he cut across his palm catching the ceremonial sword of Senterenniseveripelarenting that he sort of, maybe, knocked off its holder, a little bit. Unfortunately he grabbed the sharp end of the sword in his effort to prevent it from touching the ground, which it apparently must never EVER do, and cut his hand. It wasn't really secured all that secure anyway, they should look into that.

"What, that papercut?" Rose teased.

"PAPERCUT!? I'm wounded Rose, WOUNDED!" the Doctor replied dramatically.

Rose just gave him a cheeky grin and bumped his shoulder. He bumped back and took her hand (with his uninjured one, because it did sting a bit) and they continued on to the flat.

They reached the flat still bickering playfully. Apparently his left hand was his banana-eating hand, which made the whole situation that much worse. They entered the flat still laughing and throwing mock-insults at each other.

"Allright, wots all this racket about!" a yell came from the kitchen. "What ya moanin' about now!"

"Nice to see you too, Jackie", the Doctor said, while shooting Rose a glance that said "_see!"._

Rose ignored him and went up to her mum, kissing her on the cheek and craftily depositing her bag full of washing.

"Hi mum, how've ya been?"

"'Ello love, fine thank you. He finally let you come 'ome to see ya mum, eh? 'Bout time too, 's been four months now! And 'course ya been phoning, but tha's not the same, issit?

'Least you're 'ome now and you'll be wantin' tea, I suppose. Can't get a proper cuppa on that ship o' his, I bet. Nice to know I'm still good for something. Well sit yourselves down! I'll get your tea!"

And with that Jackie Tyler left for the kitchen, leaving the Doctor and Rose standing in the middle of the living room. One a bit baffled and the other trying to smother a grin.

"She loves you really", Rose said to the Doctor and pulled him over to the sofa to sit down.

* * *

With the telly on in the background they spend the next few minutes together in the flat, all sipping ( really quite _glorious _)tea, while Rose caught Jackie up to her travels.

Since Rose was still unable to pronounce Senterenniseveripelarenting, the Doctor felt obligated to take over. Not in the least because she was downplaying his horrific injury and subsequent disability in the area of banana enjoyment. So, needing to set Jackie straight and explain to her the vital importance of properly consuming a banana, the Doctor was now animatedly engaging in the 'right hand versus left hand'-debate (one-sided as it was, seeing as Jackie was trying very hard to ignore his gibberish). All this meant Rose was now watching the Doctor standing in the middle of the room, babbling like a maniac, waving a banana about in each hand.

She really couldn't help laughing as hard as she did.

They almost miss it amidst the cacophony of the Doctor's rambling, Jackie screeching at him to sit back down and pull that banana out of his ear and Rose quite literally choking with laughter, but when the commercial comes on the Doctor suddenly stops what he was doing and turns around.

"Jackie, shush for a minute."

Jackie nearly explodes and takes a deep breath to get ready for a special 'don't tell me what to do, alien weirdo'- rant, when Rose puts her hand on her mother's wrist, asking her with her eyes to just do as he says for now. Reluctantly she quiets down.

The Doctor is absolutely glued to the screen, his brown eyes having widened a fraction and his whole posture slightly more stiffened than it was just a minute ago when they were all still having tea.

It actually takes Rose a moment to understand what it is she's watching, but when the penny finally drops she is appalled. She's watching a commercial telling people to hate aliens!

The commercial, oblivious of Rose's disgust, carries on talking about the dangers that aliens pose on earth. Footage of the battle at Canary Warf is shown along with video's made on mobile phones showing the destruction the Cybermen and the Daleks caused. The whole thing is accompanied by a voice-over telling people that no alien can be trusted, how they are all evil scum that just want to kill us all. It ends with the logo of the organisation sponsoring the commercial, the EPO or Earth for People Only, and a small text saying they appreciate any donations made to further the cause.

The screen then fades to black and a happy upbeat commercial about fishsticks and polarbears comes on. The polarbear has less than five seconds to talk about his fillets when the screen turns black again, this time because Jackie turned the telly off muttering something about overpriced fishfillets. She then gets up to clear the teacups.

The Doctor and Rose just stays frozen for a minute. The Doctor is still staring at the telly and Rose is simply boiling with anger.

It's Rose that eventually can't hold it in any longer and breaks the silence.

"That's disgusting! It's..it's just…who does that? Why? Why would you make something so hateful! It's sick! Earth for People Only, like aliens aren't people!"

The Doctor shares a small smile to himself over Rose's last sentence but otherwise just seems puzzled. Finally he breaks his gaze on the telly screen and turns to Jackie who's putting things away in the kitchen.

"Jackie? What was that about?"

"Well I don' know, do I?" she answers. "One week it's three pounds twenty for a large box and the next it's FOUR pounds SIXTY! Bev says it's because o' them fishin' regulations an' the crisis an' what not, but if ya ask me-"

"The OTHER commercial, Jackie!" the Doctor exclaims slapping himself in the face with his non-banana-eating-hand. "The one about the aliens and the EPO. You know the one?"

"Oi! Don't get snippy wiv me mister! Just because you're a Time Lard- "

"Time lord, Jackie. Time LORD!"

"Wha'evah, Time Lord then. But just because you're on o' them, don't mean you can just come in an'-"

"THE COMMERCIAL , JACKIE, WHAT ABOUT THE COMMERCIAL?"

"WILL YOU LET ME FINISH!"

"I WILL IF SOMETHING SENSIBLE COMES OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!"

"WHY YOU-"

"FINGERS ON LIPS!" Rose suddenly screams. The Doctor and her mum both fall quiet and look at her. She stares back pointedly at the Doctor who quickly places his finger on his lips and looks innocently back at Rose. She then looks at her mother who rolls her eyes before putting her finger on her lips as well.

"Wow, that actually works", Rose says, looking rather pleased with herself at the Doctor who gives her a little smile and a thumbs up while still holding his finger in place with the other hand.

When things have calmed down a bit Rose finally lets the Doctor take his finger off his lips to ask Jackie about the commercial.

"well, is' been goin' on a while now, aftah tha' whole thing wiv Torchwood an' all, people 'ave been listenin' to all these group tha' is just poppin' up. I' only takes a coupla nutters wiv a loud enough voice, dunnit? They're all sorta sayin' the same thing, aliens is evil an' all tha', though tha' EPO's the biggest. Bu' it's all the same, innit? Jus' a coupla nutters on soapboxes, ain't they?"

"I don't know, Jackie", the Doctor says, now with a dark look in his eyes. "This sort of thing has a habit of spiralling out of control. People are scared and angry, they feel powerless and when someone just hands them a scapegoat like that they will jump on it. Turn that fear into hate. And hate like that…it can infect people, change them.."

"But it's okay, isn't it Doctor?", Rose asked. "The Daleks are gone now, so we don't 'ave to worry 'bout them anymore, and maybe it'll keep other aliens from invadin'. Tha's good, isn't it?"

"But what about the aliens already living peaceful lives on Earth, Rose? What if someone finds out his neighbour is from Barstol? There are plenty of aliens living happy, quiet lives here, but if this gets out of hand, they could be in serious danger", the Doctor advised her. Rose frowns at this, she didn't realise, but it's true. Even in this age aliens are already living on Earth and they would be in terrible danger if they were outed and handed to an angry mob like EPO. She doesn't want to think about what EPO would do with those aliens if they got their hands on them.

* * *

The Doctor and Rose decide to go out and investigate. Jackie tags along, despite the Doctor's plagued groan, because she still has some shopping to do.

A few hours later the Doctor has somehow been wrangled into carrying shopping bags and they haven't discovered anything yet. He is sporting quite an impressive pout. He is about ready to just call off the whole investigation and go back to the Powell Estates to hide from Jackie in the Tardi-..erm, that is, to do maintenance. Yes. Maintenance. When he spots a group of people across the street hanging up EPO posters. He immediately drops the bags, which probably felt more satisfying than it really should, and jogs over to the group to ask them what they're doing, all the while ignoring Jackie throwing insults at him from the other side of the road.

The men tell the doctor they are hanging up EPO posters because they hate aliens. The Doctor frowns at them a little and innocently asks them how they would recognize an alien.

The men seem a little caught out by that, but one of them eventually shouts that it must be because they are weird and disgusting and the rest seems to agree with this.

"Weeeell, that's not entirely true, is it? It's a big universe out there, could be loads of different kinds of aliens, they may even look like humans. Just 'cause they're aliens doesn't mean they're evil. Or disgusting", the Doctor adds, a little affronted.

"Yeah?", one of the men says. "How'd you know that, then eh?"

The Doctor is just about to respond when a furious Jackie comes running up to him, Rose in tow.

"'Oo, d'ya fink ya are, then!? Jus' runnin' off like tha'! Jus' leavin' my bags in the street like tha'! I got them bleedin' fishfingers in there!"

The Doctor sputters and tries to calm her down, but she's not having it.

"Oh no ya don'! I ain't 'avin' it! Ya might think you're somethin' high an' mighty mister, runnin' off when somethin' takes your fancy, but 'ere on Earth things are different, ain't they?"

At the mention of Earth Rose starts and nervously shoots a glance at the Doctor, but he's much too preoccupied with Jackie yelling at him. The telling off rapidly evolving into a full blown rant.

"Mum..", she tries.

"no Rose, I'm not hearin' it! Himself 'as 'ad this comin' for a long time now an' I'm bloody well gonna tell 'im what's what!" Jackie's yelling at both Rose and the Doctor now, completely oblivious to the men who were hanging up the poster and who are now getting increasingly more interested.

"He can' jus' go around throwin' food to the ground, I don' know abou' 'im, but us humans need to eat! Even if it's them overpriced fishfingers! We can' go around magickin' it outta 'is Target!"

"Tardis", the Doctor mutters, but that was the entirely wrong thing to say.

"Don' you start up wiv me, ya may be some big time guy from Pluto or wherever, bu' tha' don' mean you're any less importan' than me, you hear!" Jackie shouts, her finger practically poking the Doctor's eye out.

He glances around at the postermen, who have gotten downright intrigued by now and are eyeing him with a strange look on their faces. It's making the Doctor a little fidgety and quite unnerved.

He tries to get her to stop but he just gets a slap in the face for his efforts and an extra shrieking about dropping bags and ruining food.

"Alien or not, you got no righ' to jus' throw around my shoppin'!"

_Uh oh._

The postermen all suddenly turn to the Doctor.

"You're an alien?"

"What? Nah. Nothing of the sort. Me, an alien. That's just silly, isn't Rose? An alien", the Doctor nervously laughs.

"If anyone's an alien, it's that guy from the veggie isle, what with that big honker of a nose he had. Big nose like that, definitely alien", he tried to joke and draw the attention away from him, but the postermen weren't falling for it.

In the meantime all that ruckus had attracted quite a crowd, with curious people asking what was going on. Soon people were calling out that that man in the suit might be an alien, pointing at the Doctor who was frantically trying to deny any alienness.

"Come off it", Rose tries, "you're just being stupid now."

"Yeah", Jackie chimes in, realising her mistake, "I was jus' angry an' sayin' things, 'e don' even look like an alien."

"But what about what he himself said, eh? He himself said that aliens don't always look like aliens, he said they could look human", one of the postermen suddenly yells.

And at this all eyes turn on the Doctor who groans and has to supress the urge to facepalm himself. That was a bloody stupid thing to say.

Now everyone seems to be advancing on the Doctor who's got his hands raised in an attempt to hold the crowd at bay. Then someone notices the bandage on his hand. It has bled through and the blood is an orangey-red. One of the postermen makes a grab for the Doctor's hand and rips his bandage off, showing the bloody gash in his hand to the entire crowd.

The orange coloured blood is like a red flag to the crowd and in the blink of an eye they turn into a hysterical mob, all screaming and grasping for the Doctor.

The Doctor manages to tear himself free and grabbing Rose and Jackie by their wrists, makes a run for it.

"I'm sorry Doctor! I didn' think..I-" Jackie stammers, stumbling alongside the Doctor, trying to apologize.

"It's alright Jackie, I don't care. Just run!" The Doctor shouts back.

Then Jackie trips and the Doctor lets go of Rose to help her up. Rose has stopped to and is turning back to her mum and the Doctor.

"No Rose! Keep going!" He shouts.

"I ain't gonna leave ya!" Rose shouts back, looking at both the Doctor and Jackie.

"It'll be okay, Rose, just go before they get you. I'll take care of Jackie. Go! RUN!" He shouts at her again and she reluctantly turns back around and runs.

The Doctor pulls Jackie to her feet, she's apologizing again.

"I'm so sorry Doctor, I really didn' know", she cries.

"It's fine, Jackie. It doesn't matter. We just have to get running again, they're right behind us!"

They start running again but it's too late, a group of men has caught up with them and are blocking their way. Behind them even more people are gathering. The Doctor looks at the group in front of them, some of them are the postermen, but not all of them. Though every one of them is looking at him the same way, like he's something filthy they need to crush under their boot.

* * *

The mob starts to surround the Doctor and Jackie, screaming at them, calling them both aliens.

Jackie is immediately offended. "Oi! I ain't no alien!" she shrieks back at them, throwing just as many insults back at them as are being thrown at her.

The Doctor steps forward, realising this could get very ugly very quickly and trying to calm everyone down.

"Yes", he says "I'm an alien, but Jackie's not. She's human, just like you, so you can leave her out of this, alright? And as for me, I'm not evil or dangerous, I was just doing some shopping. Just like everyone else", he tries to convince the mob of his harmlessness and his similarities rather than his differences.

"There's no need for all this hate", he continues "there are loads of aliens living among you right now. All living peaceful lives and going out to do their shopping and have chips, the same as all of you. If you can just let go of your prejudice and fear you can live together with these aliens, not hunt them down and be scared of them. What do you say, eh?"

The Doctor held out his hands in an unthreatening manner and looked around the mob, making eye contact with as many people as he could. It almost looked like it was working and then…

_THWACK!_

From out of nowhere a rock hits the Doctor in the head. Caught off guard he is knocked off balance and falls to the ground. Now the whole crowd pounces on him. People are yelling and shouting. Jackie loses sight of the Doctor, she screams for him but she can't see him. Someone is dragging her away, she slaps them and they let her go. She is pushed to the ground and almost trampled. When she finally manages to get up again she catches a glimpse of the Doctor in the crowd that seems to be heading towards a stage that was built for a benefit rally the next day.

She staggers on her feet and goes after them.

By the time she reaches the crowd again she can see the Doctor being dragged towards the stage by a rope around his neck. It looks like the old kind of rope that someone has had lying around in the boot of their car for years and Jackie spends a split second wondering where someone found the time to go get a rope from his car, it's the choking sound the Doctor makes that brings her back to reality. They'll strangle him, she's sure of it. She can see him trying to grab for his throat even though a couple of men are holding his arms back.

When they reach the stage they force the Doctor to his knees and, thankfully, take the rope off from around his neck. The Doctor gulps in a grateful breath of air.

But it's not over yet. The rope that was around his neck now gets tied around his right wrist and a pair of fluffy handcuffs attached to their own scraggly looking rope are fastened around his left wrist. The Doctor takes a moment amidst the panic and terror to think about the ridiculousness of the whole situation. Tied up by fluffy cuffs. Humans…they're nothing if not good improvisers.

He doesn't get long to let his thoughts drift though, as he is yanked back to his feet by the rope and cuffs around his wrists and pulled towards the centre of the stage.

He is presented to the hysterical mob, screaming for his blood. Sad and resigned he looks out into the crowd and spots Jackie looking at him with horror in her eyes. A quick scan tells him that Rose isn't among the rest of the crowd and for that he is thankful, feels relieved even. Because whatever is going to happen next, it's going to hurt and he doesn't want her to see that.

Jackie sees him wince and a closer look to his face reveals why. He is covered in cuts and bruises and he is bleeding from a nasty looking gash on the left side of his face.

One of the postermen steps in front of the Doctor and starts yelling about how the Doctor is a filthy alien, trying to hide among humans and pretending to be one of them. He's unnatural, evil, his orange blood a sure sign of his monstrosity. He doesn't deserve to be here. Earth for humans! Earth for humans!

Then, unexpectedly, the posterman turns around and slams an aluminium baseball bat into the Doctor's stomach. The Doctor almost folds in half, only being held up by the rope and cuffs around his wrists that are pulling his arms out to the sides. When the bat is pulled away Jackie sees something that makes her want to vomit. There are jagged pieces of metal welded to the aluminium of the bat, making sure each hit won't just bruise, but also rip and tear. Jackie's mind goes blank and all she can think about is what kind of monster must own a bat like that. But then she hears a muffled groan and sees the Doctor has been struck again and she knows she's looking at one.

The Doctor manages to catch Jackie's gaze and holds it. Staring in her eyes as he is beaten by the bat again and again as though Jackie looking back at him is the only thing holding him upright.

Looking back at him, Jackie thinks it just might be.

*end of chapter one*


	2. Chapter 2

_Wow! thanks for all the lovely replies. you like me, you really, really like me! :D _

_here is the final chapter, I was considering splitting this one up in two chapters, because it's veeeery long, but I have no discipline and I just wanted to post it XD._

_I love hearing what you think about it, this story is my first even fanfic ( whump or otherwise :P ) so I'm super nervous. *please love me* :P_

_oh and I forgot the disclaimer: I own nothing, blabla. please don't sue me :)_

_enjoy!_

* * *

*chapter two*

The Doctor doesn't scream.

No matter how they beat him, he keeps his jaws clenched and he doesn't scream.

He is bleeding from jagged, uneven cuts everywhere on his body and his stomach feels so bruised he thinks the bruises on the front might leak (_leak? Do bruises even leak?)_ through and be visible on his back. But he won't be able to check. He wouldn't see them through the large bruises already marring his back. Rassilon, it hurts so much.

But he doesn't scream.

And this seems to really annoy the man with the bat.

The poster man seems to make it his mission to make the Doctor scream, hitting him again and again, hitting him where it really hurts, but the Doctor never makes more sound than the occasional loud, heart-wrenching groan from behind gritted teeth. It's not enough for the poster man though, he wants to hear the Doctor scream, so he hits him hard in the gut once more, but instead of lifting the bat straight off him, he drags it across the Doctor's stomach, tearing him to shreds.

Now the Doctor screams.

The poster man smiles a vicious smile, just what the alien freak deserves.

He takes in the hunched form of the Doctor, only held up by the rope and cuffs around his wrists. Sweat on his brow and specks of blood on his face like some kind of morbid addition to the freckles he already has.

The poster man swings again, this time hitting him low in the left knee. It makes a strange crunching sound that is somehow heard clearly over the noise of the crowd.

He doesn't scream this time, not wanting to give in again, he makes a kind of choking sound in the back of his throat instead, face contorted in utter agony and falls to his knees on the floor of the stage.

The sudden tug on his wrist from the hit to his knee and subsequent fall causes the small chain between the fluffy cuffs to break, his left arm dropping limply, one fluffy pink cuff still around his raw wrist. His right arm is still sticking up in the air, the rope around his right wrist still holding steady and the men holding it still pulling his arm out to the side.

He lies there, shaking and bleeding when he hears the worst ( _and the best _) thing he could possibly hear.

"DOCTOR!"

His eyes fly open and even from his crumpled position on the floor he still manages to find her.

"Rose…", he whispers.

Rose is pushing through the crowd, calling for him. Her face is etched with unspeakable horror and the Doctor can't help but feel guilty, he never wanted her to see this. He had hoped when she got away, that she would keep running, But she came back for him. Again.

Rose is struggling to reach him, fighting her way past the agitated mob. She stretches out her hand, she can almost touch his cheek when a couple of the people on the stage yank her away and pull her up on the stage by her arms, clothes and hair. Rose screams, in rage as well a as pain and from somewhere in the crowd the Doctor can hear Jackie's frightened shriek.

The man holding the bat immediately stalks over to Rose and grabs her by the front of her shirt, pulling her almost flush against him, frenzied gaze drilling in her eyes.

"What are you then, eh? Some kind o' alien lover, aren't ya? Bet he's got ya brainwashed or summat, infected even. Though maybe I'm wrong an' you're a filthy alien freak like 'im, all I have to do to find out is cut ya," the man spits at Rose, holding the sharp pieces of metal close to her face.

"NO!" the Doctor shouts. "No! let her go!"

He struggles to get back on his feet, pulling with everything he's got on the rope that's still restraining his right wrist. He manages to get back up, his destroyed knee barely holding any weight, but he doesn't seem to feel it. Rose is straining for him, trying to get to him and shouting for him while being dragged back by several people on the stage.

Then, with one final desperate pull, the Doctor snaps the rope that was holding him back and falls to the ground again. He wastes no time and instantly scrambles back to his knees and starts crawling towards Rose, still yelling at the men holding Rose to let her go. But they are backing away, taking Rose with them, the poster man with the bat holding it threateningly close to Rose's throat.

The Doctor can barely move, he'll never be able to get Rose away from them by force. He pauses, he can barely talk either, but he has to try.

"Please", he begs, "_please! _Let her… go, she's not a-.. an alien. I'm the alien, you want …me. Wasn't it more… fun that way, eh? Beating me? You…. don't want… her. Let… let her go".

He's still trying to crawl to them, to Rose, when someone – he can't see who – stomps on his mangled left knee. He howls in agony, pushing his forehead against the floor of the stage in an attempt to ride out the unimaginable pain. His face is set in a grimace and he is trembling, but still he carries on, dragging himself towards Rose.

"Please", he tries again" just… listen, you can h-have… me. I won't run, even… if I could. Just re…lease her, she's only human, just… please… let her go and you… can have me. I'll give…ungghh…give myself to you, you can do… whatever you want, just…hrrgh… don't hurt her!" he croaks out his plea.

Some of the people holding Rose seem to be getting a bit uncomfortable listening to the Doctor's desperate pleading and they loosen their hold just a fraction, but just a fraction is enough for Rose who seizes her chance and kicks one of the men holding her in the groin causing him to let her go with a pained yelp. She rips herself out of the hold of the others and rushes towards to Doctor.

He is panting and coughing on the stage, finally unable to move anymore. She reaches him and falls to her knees beside him. He has collapsed on his front and Rose carefully rolls him to his back in an attempt to make him more comfortable. She cradles his head in her lap stroking his bloody, sweaty hair away from his equally bloody, sweaty face. She starts to cry.

"Shhh, Rose, it's… okay. It'll be alright… it'll be fine, don't… cry", he gasps out, trying to shush her, but she can't seem to make the tears stop falling. Oh, he's so sorry, he didn't want this for her. He was so relieved when she got away earlier, he was so scared for her, so scared that they would hurt her like they have hurt him. And then she came back, throwing herself back into danger just to be with him. Just so he could hurt her and make her cry. He is so, _so _beneath her.

Everyone has sort of stopped, even the poster man with the bat – though he doesn't look happy about it – even Jackie who is staring at the Doctor and Rose up on that stage with a mixture of horrified terror and pure awe.

Rose is still crying over the Doctor, telling him in broken hiccupping sobs that she's sorry, she's just so, so sorry.

"Hey, that's… my line", the Doctor gasps and smiles a little at Rose. "Besides, it's okay, I- _Hgggnhh…_" he groans and arches in Rose's lap. She strokes his cheek, trying to calm him and after taking a moment to relax and catch his breath he continues, "I…I'm happy that you're safe…nothing…nothing else matters", he finishes and smiles up at her again. She smiles back warmly and kisses him on his cheek. He is watching her through heavy eyes and after a moment's hesitation she kisses him again, on the lips this time. A second passes and he kisses back, just a little but enough for them both. She draws back and they smile at each other again.

_Cla-click!_

At the sound of a gun being cocked the Doctor tenses in Rose's lap, he sharply turns his head, wincing against the pain that movement causes. Rose follows the Doctor's gaze and looks straight into the eyes of the formerly bat-wielding poster man, now aiming a gun at the Doctor with a hate-filled look of revulsion on his face.

"Get away from the _alien_", he almost spits out the last word, like it's something vile on his tongue. He's waving the gun about, motioning for Rose to get up and away from the Doctor.

"I won't", Rose spits back, an equal amount of revulsion in her voice. "You'll hurt him", she states accusingly.

"Of course I'll bloody hurt him! He's a freaking alien! He's filth! He has it coming!", the poster man yells back at Rose.

Rose takes a deep breath, getting ready to shout her reply, but the Doctor stops her by painfully moving a bruised and bloodied hand on her arm.

"It's…okay", he gasps, his voice barely more than a breathy whisper.

Rose stares back at him and he implores her with his eyes, too worn out to speak anymore, to understand. He just wants her safe no matter what.

_" she's only human, just… please… let her go and you… can have me"_

Her eyes widen and she stares in shock at the Doctor, his red rimmed eyes confirming her fears. He'll let himself be taken, if it means she gets away unharmed.

Well, she's not having it.

"WHAT!?" she screams. "Are you simple? They're just gonna 'urt ya again!"

"Maybe…maybe it's better that…way", the Doctor whispers, "maybe I… deserve it".

"You can't think that! You're wrong! You're not some alien freak, you matter!" Rose yells at him, panicking. _Please God,_ _don't you know how much you matter!_

"Grab her!" the Poster man yells at his cronies still on the stage, but the men hesitate. The emotional reunion of the Doctor and Rose moments earlier and the quiet words shared between them after that have given the men a chance to stand still and think and slowly get themselves out from under the influence of mass hysteria. Now they were really seeing what they had done and they found themselves unsure. The adrenaline was still pumping, but the solid conviction of their rightness in their actions, that they had felt so strongly before, was gone.

"GRAB HER!" the poster man shouts again, his voice a little higher now and tinged with budding panic.

He pushes Rose roughly aside and grabs one of the Doctor's chafed wrists, the one with the single fluffy cuff. A few men have hesitantly come forward and taken hold of Rose again, but their hold is lax and they are not quite as firm with her this time.

The poster man, sensing the hesitation, gives a sharp, panicked, yank on the Doctor's arm and tries to drag him further away from Rose.

"_Yaaarrgh!_" the Doctor screams, now far too exhausted to bite back his pain.

The Doctor's scream seems to be the signal for several people in the crowd who were also starting to get unsure to raise their voice.

Slowly soft mutters become shouted outrage and the people who were calling for his blood are now yelling for his release. Distinct cries are hurled at the panicked poster man, still holding the moaning Doctor by his wrist, to let him go, how it's wrong and they shouldn't do this, how he's hurt enough and they should leave him alone now.

Some people are even climbing up on stage and they are closing in on the frantic poster man. Realising his game is up he drops the Doctor and kicks him as hard as he can in the ribs before jumping of stage and making a run for it.

She sees several people chase after him, but Jackie doesn't care about what happens to the man who beat the Doctor half to death on a stage like some sort of public execution, instead she climbs up on the stage herself and makes her way to Rose who has pulled the Doctor into her lap again.

* * *

When she reaches them she sees a small half-circle of people has formed around them. She glares at them, powerfully and feels a little bit victorious when they look away embarrassed. In fact most of the people surrounding them and a lot of the people still beside the stage looked ashamed of themselves, they never thought they could get so swept away. Even though they may have made bold statements in the heat of the moment, now, looking at the bleeding, gasping, trembling alien…man held so gently in the arms of a crying human girl, they felt…wrong. This was what they had asked for, demanded, _screamed_ for, but now that they got it, it didn't feel as good as they thought it would. It didn't feel good at all. There was no pride, no sense of accomplishment, just a feeling of wrongness and an overpowering feeling of shame.

"What…what should we do with him now?" one person asked.

"Should we…put him out of his misery? You know, like with a sick pet or something?" another one hesitantly suggests.

"We can't kill him", someone else yells, "he's…he's sort of a person now…isn't he? He should go to a hospital".

"How are they supposed to treat 'im? He's an alien, for all we know 'e's gonna spin 'imself a cocoon or summat, like in that one film", yet another person puts in.

They start to argue amongst themselves, not quite sure what to do with the Doctor now that they're left with him, though not brave enough either to offer help to the blond girl that's still holding him.

A sharp gasp, followed by a wracking cough snaps them out of it, every person going silent and looking at the Doctor again.

Rose is thankful they shut up, she was this close to yelling at them to shut it and that they had no right to decide his fate after how they treated him, but the Doctor's gasp and cough stopped her too.

He's so broken, she thinks. He's barely breathing, every breath he does take is wheezing and that cough made him give up a little blood. He coughs again, grimacing and groaning when it's over and Rose cups his cheek, stroking his hair with her other hand and softly tells him to be still, it will be okay.

"Just keep still, Doctor, okay? We're gonna get 'elp, just hold on….please".

He looks up at her then, his eyes are so full of pain. It hurts so, so much. It's so bad.

But Rose is here.

He smiles at her. It's barely a smile, more of a grimace that turns into a wince, but she understands and smiles back at him.

"Rose…thank you….brilliant…love y-".

His last words are lost as he simply runs out of air, he tries again to say something else, something _really _important, but the best he can do is a garbled throaty sound. He gives up and closes his eyes.

Rose leans down in a panic when she can't hear him breathe anymore, but leaning in close to his mouth she feels tiny puffs of air coming from his lips and she sighs in relief. He's still breathing.

But he's only got one heart going.

* * *

The Doctor is lying still in her lap and Rose can't help but think that the Doctor should never be so still. Tears are still rolling of her cheeks in big, wet droplets and she hugs him close, burying her face in his neck. Jackie comes up behind her and puts a hand on her shoulder, it's intended to be a comforting gesture, but to Rose it's the very thing that breaks her and she cries loud, half-swallowed sobs _begging _ him to wake up and be okay. Just wake up. Wake. Up!

Jackie uncurls her from the Doctor, swallowing her own tears over his limp form, and hugs her firmly to herself, squeezing her daughter just as hard as she is squeezing her. Letting her cry out her heart over the alien man she loved - _loves!_ – against her mother's shoulder.

The heart-breaking scene is witnessed by several dozen silent spectators, all of them understanding the girl is grieving for a lost love. For all of them can see, he hasn't long left to live.

From the crowd, one man comes forward. He kneels down beside Rose and Jackie and tells them that he can't undo what he did, _Rose has never wanted to punch someone this badly in her life_, but he can try to make amends now. He offers to carry the Doctor back to wherever he lives.

"It shouldn't be here", he simply says, meaningfully.

Rose nods, she doesn't want any of them touching him, but she wants him home more than that.

The man picks up the motionless Doctor and silently asks them to lead the way. The Doctor shows no sign of acknowledging being picked up, Rose feels a bit guilty for hoping he would at least wince, or groan, something, _anything_ to show he's still there, but he only lets out a small wheeze when he is pulled off the floor and Rose can't fool herself enough to say it's not just from the temporary pressure on his ribcage. She wipes away another tear.

Jackie leads the man on, while Rose hovers near the Doctor's head, eyes always on his face, waiting for the smallest sign that he's waking back up.

As they leave Rose doesn't spare a second glance to the crowd they leave behind. It's not even a conscious decision, she simply doesn't care enough.

If she had turned her head and looked, she would have seen the once hysteric mob now turned into a hesitant group of confused and ashamed strangers, none of them sure what to do now, slowly shuffling off towards their homes.

Jackie opens the door to her flat and lets Rose and the man carrying the Doctor in. she tells him curtly to lay the Doctor down on Rose's bed and then leave. He does so, gently putting the Doctor down. He apologizes once more and walks out the door, closing it behind him. Rose doesn't thank him, neither does Jackie.

Rose and Jackie start to remove the Doctor's clothes, they are half torn off anyway and the ones that aren't are too dirty and bloodstained to stay on anyway, besides, they need to see his injuries.

Rose hesitates for a moment when she reaches his pants, they have to come off, they're soaked with blood that's leaked through from other wounds, but she lingers at the waistband. She glances up, _ Come on Doctor, _she thinks, _ I'm gonna take of your pants now, this would be the perfect moment to wake up and stop me. Mum's just in the kitchen getting some towels an' things, but she could come back any moment and walk in on you naked… _But he doesn't move, doesn't flinch or try to wriggle away, there's not even a change in his barely-there breathing, he doesn't react at all.

Rose gently eases down his pants and covers him back up with a spare towel. Despite him not waking up and stopping her she doesn't think he would appreciate Jackie seeing him naked.

She smiles at the thought a little and hopes she gets the chance to tell him and tease him about this…she really hopes she gets the chance.

Jackie comes back in with clean towels and a bowl of warm water.

"I brough' some disinfectan', you know, from when you go' you're ears pierced. It's all I 'ad, d'ya fink it's alright for him?" she asks, setting down the bowl of warm water and handing Rose the bottle.

"It'll be fine, mum, thanks", Rose says quietly.

"It will be, love, it will be", Jackie emphasizes, squeezing Rose's shoulder.

They clean his wounds as best they can, wiping away the blood and rinsing out the jagged cuts and gashes. Jackie has some bandages, but not many so they improvise where they can to make sure they can bind or at least cover all of his injuries. They don't know what to do with his knee.

Jackie has to swallow some bile a couple of times, especially when she sees the state of his knee. It's gone a shade of blue so dark it looks more like black and the shape is…well, it doesn't even look like a knee.

As soon as they have done as much as they can Jackie offers to put the dirty towels in the wash and make some tea. Rose nods, she knows her mother needs to get some air and she'd rather be alone anyway.

As the hours pass Rose keeps her vigil. Jackie comes in now and again to bring her (and the Doctor, she always brings a fresh cup for him too, you never know…. So far she's had to take it away again each time, cold and still full) some tea or something to eat. She's cleaned up a bit, though. Mostly because her mum made her, but she's taken a quick shower while Jackie kept watch and she does feel better for it.

She went right back to sitting by him after that, stroking his hair like she did on that stage.

* * *

He keeps getting worse.

He's ice-cold now and it's hard to tell if he's still breathing sometimes. His remaining heart is beating slower by the minute.

"He's 'urt really bad, love", Jackie says while she sits in the chair next to Rose. Rose doesn't react, she just keeps rubbing circles with her thumb on the hand she's holding. There used to be a fluffy cuff on it.

"Maybe…maybe he's 'urt _too_ bad, sweethear', maybe he won't make i'", Jackie says carefully, expecting her daughter to turn around and list off all the reasons why the Doctor _is_ going to make it.

Rose sighs.

"I know, mum", she says in a little voice. She's not lost in her own hysteria anymore, trying to fight it every step of the way and refusing to believe he might not wake up. She's not trembling with the effort of keeping herself from jumping up and shaking him 'till he opens his eyes and comes back to her anymore. She's accepted that it was just too much for him. She turns to her mother.

"I just want him to stop hurting, mum", she says with fresh tears in her eyes.

Jackie moves her chair closer and hugs her tightly.

"I don't want 'im to go, I don't", she continues, "an' I can't say it won' 'urt if he dies, cuz it will, but I can be okay for him if I 'ave to. Let go, so he can. 'Cause I love him, mum! I love him and I want to see him safe. My Doctor…nothing else matters anymore".

Throughout her confession Rose has started sobbing louder and louder, but she's holding it together, Jackie knows. She's keeping strong so the Doctor can be weak for once and let go.

She is so strong, her Rose, Jackie marvels. She has never seen her daughter this strong. If only that stupid, bloody, brilliant alien didn't- ..

The Doctor takes a deep breath and both Rose and Jackie snap their heads to him. Another deep breath, though this one is a bit staggering. One last deep breath and a slow exhale…. And the Doctor stops breathing altogether.

There's no heartbeat anymore. He's gone.

Rose bursts into tears, openly weeping. Stroking his forehead 'till she can't hold herself up anymore and breaks down on the Doctor's still chest, sobbing into the improvised bandages.

Jackie just rubs her back and lets her cry it out. Rose can't be strong anymore, she did her job, she held it together long enough for the Doctor to let go, now she can give in.

Jackie rubs her back and cries as well.

Eventually Rose stops crying and gets off the Doctor's chest, she strokes his cheek again and kisses him on the lips.

"I love you", she tells him, "an' I'll miss you an'….I hope you're happy... an' safe".

* * *

Jackie takes Rose to the living room and gets them both a cup of tea, if only to keep their hands occupied. They're quiet for a moment and then they start to talk. About the Doctor and about Rose travelling with him. Rose tells her mother about things she's seen that are so beautiful, you get worried if you can keep your eyes open long enough to take everything in. and about things that are so awful, you get so lost in it you don't think you'll ever find your way back again. And then about the Doctor again, how he was always there when she got that lost, to lift her up and show her the way out. How he could find the one great thing between all the misery that made everything seem worthwhile. And how he could keep his eyes open the longest and spread them the widest and always looked like he could see far more than she could.

Jackie throws in what annoyed her about him and Rose laughs at that. She talks about his annoying habits and the things that drove her mental, but Jackie can she she's smiling throughout the whole story.

They finally get to the subject of what to do with him now.

"He should be in the Tardis", Rose says without a doubt. "They should be together".

She can only imagine how the poor time machine must feel now that she's lost her Time Lord.

"We can take him to his room. I got him new covers from Schrm, he likes them", Rose utters in a soft voice, throwing a glance in the direction of her room, where her Doctor is.

"But what then, Rose?", Jackie asks, "won' 'e … rot, or sumfin'?" she continues, not really wanting to bring it up, but knowing she can't exactly leave the question unanswered.

"I don't know, mum. Maybe the Tardis'll keep 'im or we can find some sorta stasis pod or summat, I don' know, but I don't want to leave 'im here an' I don't want to think about that right now", Rose replies. "Besides", she says quietly, before Jackie can argue, "the Tardis deserves to say her goodbyes too".

"Alright then, we'll take 'im there. We can fink abou' i' some more an' decide later", Jackie obliges.

"Let's cover 'im up a bit an' move 'im".

They wrap the Doctor in a bed sheet and carry him outside to the Tardis. Rose leads them to the Doctor's room and they lay him down softly on his bed, on the lovely covers from Schrm.

They take the time to check his make-shift bandages while he is still lying on the bed sheet on top of the covers and replace them where necessary with fresh ones from the Tardis infirmary. Then they change him into one of his own pyjama's, his suit a bit too tricky to change him into when he's so unresponsive and they finally pull the bed sheet out from under him and tuck him in a bit.

The entire room sounds sad.

Jackie decides to see if the Tardis has any tea, she doesn't really want a cuppa, she's probably drunk a gallon of the stuff in the last few hours, but it's something she can do to keep her busy and keep her mind off things.

When she comes back she finds Rose curled up next to the Doctor.

She should say something. Her daughter's lying next to the corpse of an alien… but she doesn't quite have the heart to disturb her, so she covers Rose with an extra blanket and leaves the room for now.

* * *

Rose is awake. She's not quite sure why, it's the middle of the night and she's still a bit sleepy.

She glances around and then she remembers.

The Doctor is dead.

She lowers her head trying to hold back new tears. She's done crying! She takes a deep breath and steels herself to turn around and face the lifeless body beside her…and freezes.

It may just be the darkness of the room, but the Doctor's face looks better than before.

She scrambles out of bed and hurries to the Doctor's side to turn on his bedside-lamp. In the light she's sure. His face has healed!

She touches his cheek just to eradicate that last lingering bit of doubt, but it's real. He's healed. You can still see some of what used to be the larger gashes, but he's mostly bruise free and there's no trace of the smaller cuts.

He's really healing!

Now she understands why she woke up.

Silently sending up a thank you to the sentient time ship she hurries to the kitchen, the last room she saw her mother in and bursts into the room.

The slam of the door jerks Jackie, who was snoozing in one of the beanbags along the hammock wall in the kitchen, awake. Barely coherent she is accosted by her frantic daughter, screaming something about the Doctor.

"R'se…wha..", Jackies mumbles groggily and a little ticked off for being woken up.

"He's doin' it, mum! He's doin' it!".

Jackie barely has the chance to react before Rose is dragging her to the Doctor's room.

"Rose! Wha' are you goin' on abou'!? Wh-..", Jackie says angrily, but before she can finish her sentence she glances at the Doctor and the sight takes her words away.

The Doctor's face is almost free of any injuries and his colour is slowly coming back. She turns to her daughter in speechless shock.

"See, mum! He's doin' it! He's healin' 'imself!"

"H-how?", Jackie manages to utter.

"I don't know and I don't care!", Rose cries jubilantly. "He's doin' it! He's alive!"

Rose clings onto her mother in a hug and Jackie hugs back, a little baffled still.

"I'll make tea", she says suddenly," it worked last time, it might work now". She pulls out of the hug and hurries to the kitchen, all the while muttering something about crazy aliens and their weird zombie healing, but Rose can see the skip in her step. She's just as happy as she is.

* * *

Jackie almost crashes back into the room with the tea, they hold it close to him not knowing what to expect.

A moment of silence… and then the Doctor takes a deep breath, releasing it on a satisfied sounding sigh.

Rose is ecstatic. Jackie keeps running back and forth, hauling buckets of fresh ginger tea. Every time they let him smell the tea and every time he breathes it in.

By the morning his face is fully healed and most of the larger bruises and bandaged wounds on his body are gone. His breathing is soft and staggering, but it's there and he has one heart beating a strong rhythm in his chest. His back still looks badly bruised and his ripped apart stomach is still torn, but they both look better. Even his knee is looking more like a knee after every cup of tea.

Rose is just taking another cup of, now cold, tea away from the Doctor when he makes a little whining noise. Rose snaps her head to him and looks at him wide eyed. His eyes are cracked open minimally and he's looking back at her. He makes the noise again and she lets him sip a little of the cold tea. He smiles a small little smile at her and she beams back at him. He closes his eyes but this time his breathing is stronger and his second heart is beating again.

By the time he wakes up the second time it's early in the evening. Rose is already there with a steaming cup of tea. He drinks, well…gulps down, a whole cup of tea this time.

He swallows a few times and tries to talk, but he can only make garbled wheezing sounds.

"Sshh, you don't have to talk. It's okay", Rose soothes him.

He looks up at her with a look of gratitude in his eyes and she smiles at him warmly, stroking his hair 'till he drifts off again.

* * *

He wakes up early in the morning, feeling rested and fully recovered from his healing coma. He wishes he could have warned Rose when he felt himself slipping into it back on that stage. He tried, he did. But he couldn't squeeze out enough air to form the words. He sank into it without being able to explain. He fought it with all he had, tried to hold on, cling to consciousness. He could feel it dragging him down, but he had to explain.

He doesn't remember why he finally felt he could let go, he just remembers it was okay.

Still, she must have worried so much.

When he woke up the first time he knew it was too early,_ it still hurt so bad,_ but there was this smell, this delicious smell. He opened his eyes and she was smiling down at him. The most glorious sight he could ever imagine. And with tea! He wanted to say so much, but he was so tired. Things turned dark before he could try.

The second time he wakes up he can still feel the pain in his body. It's hiding in his bones, a deep, drumming ache that seems settled where it is. It's still too early to be waking up and before he can wonder what woke him this time, there is Rose again. Rose and tea.

He tries to inhale the tea, it's so welcome, but his guilt hits him. He needs to explain. He needs to tell her why, but she shushes him and tells him he doesn't need to say. He wants to, but he's so tired and she's stroking his hair and that feels so nice.

He drifts off again.

Now he's awake though and he feels good. This is the right time.

He turns around slightly and sees Rose lying next to him. She must have fallen asleep watching him. There's a cup of tea on his stand for him. It's still warm, but he leaves it for now.

He turns more and kisses Rose on her forehead, the way he's lying he can't quite reach her lips without disturbing her and he doesn't want that, but she wakes up anyway.

He smiles at her. She smiles back

"Hello", he says.

"Hello", she responds.

"I thought you were dead", she says after a moment of silence.

"So did I for a second there", he admits.

They pause. The Doctor looks into her eyes and comes to a decision.

There'll be time to explain the intricacies of regenerative comas later, now is more important. So when she asks "How are you still alive?"

He has a better answer to give.

"I love you".

*the end*

* * *

_tadaa! did you like it? I really hope you did! _

_I for one, loved writing it and I've got at least three more stories floating around in my head, so this won't be the last you hear from me. _

_I'd love to hear what you thought about it!_

_cheers! :D_


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